The invention relates to an apparatus for oiling eggs, subsequent to cleaning the eggs and prior to packaging.
It is common practice to clean eggs on an automatic egg cleaning apparatus prior to packaging the eggs by means of an automatic packager. While being transported on a conveyor belt, the eggs are passed through a washing station where they are washed with detergent and hot water, and scrubbed by rotary brushes. The eggs are subsequently passed through a drying station in which the shells are dried by a flow of air.
The washing step removes from the surface of the eggshells the natural oil normally coating newly laid eggs. It is necessary to reseal the eggshell pores to prevent loss of carbon dioxide and mositure, prior to packaging the eggs. This is accomplished conventionally by oiling the surface of the eggshells, either by spraying the eggs with mineral oil as they pass below a spray head while being transported on the conveyor belt, by applying a relatively large quantity of oil to the top of the eggs with reliance on gravity for dripping the excess oil over the whole surface of each shell, by wiping the surface of the eggshells with soft brushes supplied with oil, by simply dipping the eggs in an oil bath, or by oiling them by hand.
All the methods and apparatus hereto available for oiling eggs on the conveyor belt of an in-line egg processing apparatus present the inconveniences that far from the optimum quantity of oil is applied to the eggshells, and generally result in an excess of oil being applied, which in turn causes an inconvenience to the comsumer and, in addition, causes considerable waste of oil and requires frequent cleaning of the conveyor belt system.